Arundhati Roy among Man Booker Prize contenders

Sun Online Desk
27th July, 2017 02:05:14

Paul Auster, Colson Whitehead and past winner Arundhati Roy are among contenders for this year’s Man Booker Prize for fiction, reports The Indian Express.

Auster’s intimate epic “4 3 2 1” and Whitehead’s fantasy-tinged historical saga “The Underground Railroad” are among four works by US authors on the list, alongside Emily Fridlund’s coming-of-age story “History of Wolves” and George Saunders’ magical, mournful “Lincoln in the Bardo.”

Roy, who won the prize in 1997 for “The God of Small Things,” is in the running again with her long-awaited second novel, “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”

The 13 books announced Thursday were chosen from 144 novels submitted by publishers. Literary critic Lola Young, chairwoman of the judging panel, said the list contained works of “huge energy, imagination and variety.”

Founded in 1969 and originally open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors.

Its first American winner was Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout” in 2016.

The six finalists will be named September 13, and the winner of the 50,000-pound ($65,000) prize will be announced on October 17.